A known technique related to a lid lock apparatus is disclosed in JP2001-65658A, which will be hereinafter referred to as Reference 1, for retaining a fuel filler lid serving as a lid member provided at a vehicle body in a closed state. According to the lid lock apparatus disclosed in Reference 1, a lock shaft serving as a moving member is accommodated within a housing so as to be movable in an axial direction. A compression spring is disposed between the moving member and the housing to bias the moving member towards the lid member.
The moving member biased by the compression spring projects from the housing so that an end portion of the moving member engages with the lid member. As a result, the lid member is held in the closed state. The moving member is brought to a locked state accordingly. The lid member, which selectively opens and closes a fuel filler box within which a fuel filler is accommodated, is normally in the closed state except for time of refueling. At the time of refueling, a worm wheel is rotated by an electric motor to pull back the moving member that is connected to the worm wheel while the compression spring is being deflected. The engagement of the moving member with the lid member is released to thereby bring the moving member to an unlocked state.
The compression spring used for the lid lock apparatus disclosed in Reference 1 is elastically supported in a state where both end portions of the compression spring are held by a stepped portion formed at an outer peripheral surface of the moving member and a wall surface of the housing respectively while the moving member is inserted into an inner peripheral portion of the compression spring. Therefore, in a case where the moving member is assembled on the housing, the moving member is first inserted into the compression spring and thereafter is arranged at a predetermined position of the housing wile the compression spring is being compressed, which may lead to an assembly difficulty of the moving member.
In addition, according to the lid lock apparatus disclosed in Reference 1, the compression spring is arranged at the moving member and therefore an axial length thereof may increase. Thus, in a case of a reduced attachment space provided at a vehicle, mountability of the lid lock apparatus may be deteriorated.
A need thus exists for a lid lock apparatus for a vehicle which is not susceptible to the drawback mentioned above.